Short Skip July 2013

July 201 3, Issue 7, Volume 61

From the Editor

Benjamin Straw, KC9UNS

Hi everyone hope things are going well. and going to have a safe fourth We got a few things to tell you, first up are some corrections to last months issue Matt KC9YNM was one of our latest members, I mistook him for John KC9YDF(so many Y’s).

Next was in my article about the Indiana QSO Party, John and Kenny went to the EMA building and not Marv. Last month we got to use our new sign (Image on page 3) we had made, it was placed at the front entrance and we think it helped at least one person find what drive to enter. A little bit of news that wasn't put into the meeting minutes is that the NEW Lake County Health Department has moved from “Building A” to across the street...

Matter of fact its right next door to where we have our meetings. Come out to the next meeting and have a look.

Those who use the clubs repeater may notice that people are asking you to re-say your callsign due to it being cut off, this is due to the kerchunk filter. So we would like to teach you a few new things about how to use a repeater with kerchunk filter First of all PLEASE hold down the PTT (For those CW guys that haven't used it in a while... the button you press to talk) for ABOUT 2 seconds than talk or give you callsign. This should only be done IF the repeater has dropped. If hasn't you don't need to do this due to what is called the Hang Time Delay. Most operators let the repeater drop before rekeying, this is the WRONG way to operate and is hard on repeater equipment. The New and proper way is to rekey 2 seconds after you hear the COURTESY BEEP to allow people to enter in a conversation. Don't worry about the time out timer, it restarts after the beep. The Hang Time is about 7 seconds, so there is plenty of time to talk without a problem.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Meeting

Lake County Amateur Radio Club

Lake County Dept. Homeland Security Building /New Health Dept. Building July 1 2th @ 7:30pm. Board 6:30pm

Picnic/Operating Event

Indiana Parks on the air (INPOTA) Where: Indiana Dunes State Park Tremont Shelter When: September 7th.

Event 1 1 am-5pm. Setup @ 1 0am.

Hamfest

Sun July 1 4, 201 3

FRRL Hamfest and Electronics Market Aurora Central Catholic High School

Sun July 21 , 201 3

Karsfest Will County Fairgrounds

So the next club event will be INPOTA (Indiana parks on the air) and club picnic. The date Net is September 7th and we will be operating the 1 x1 callsign N9D from the Indiana Dunes.

LCARC Weekly Information Net The Club has reserved the same shelter as last year, The Tremont Shelter.

Clubs VHF & UHF Repeaters Every Thursday @ 8pm This shelter offers grills to cook out on. If you want, bring something to gill, as the club will provide carcoil. We set up at 1 0AM, IMPOTA begins at 1 1 , and munch food at around noon.

It’s unfortunate that we can't operate INPOTA the full 8 hours, but 6 of those will be plenty, around 5 pm we will start packing up and head out. If you would like to attend, just come out and bring a dish.

For cars, trucks and campers, the entrance fee is $5 per vehicle for Indiana plates and $7 per vehicle for out of state plates.

For more info please email Ben @ KC9UNS@Gmail.com On another note Short Skip YES the one you're reading! Needs help from Short Skip readers, it needs material to add to its pages. We are looking for anything pertaining to amateur radio or computer related. Hints and kinks, antennas, technical talk, operating tips, public service, classic radio, club activities, or etc.

All articles must be in by Sunday July 28th for it to be in the next issue. Copyright rules and permission apply to all submissions.

Last but not least did you know LCARC has a net? We do, every Thursday night @ 8 PM. Anyway I hope everyone has a good and safe summer and we hope to see you at our next club meeting or event.

Benjamin Straw - KC9UNS, Secretary, Short Skip Editor, and Net Controller, Lake County Amateur Radio Club.

In this Issue of Short Skip

2. LCARC Meeting Minutes 3. Meeting pictures 4. Size of Pile-up, AGN? AGN?, & LOTW Update 5. ARRL Phishing, Newsline YHOTY 6. Rar OSL, Art Bell 7. QCWA Meeting, HamQTH.com 8. FCC Considering Encryption 9. N9D Operating Event & Picnic

ARTICLES N EEDED!!!

If you have anything pertaining to amateur radio that you would like to contribute to, and share with others in Short Skip, we would be happy to include your offering in any future edition. Anything you would like. Hints and kinks, antennas, technical talk, operating tips, public service, classic radio, club activities, etc., would be heartily welcomed!!! All articles must be in by the 20th of every month. Copyright rules and permission apply to all submissions. Please send your submission to: KC9UNS / Short Skip Editor kc9uns@gmail.com I hope you enjoy this month’s Short Skip as much as I did putting it together!

Shirley K9SAL Wayne KA9YNB Bob WD9EZB Joe KC9WCU Dave N9TIP If we missed your birthday or get it wrong, please let us know

LCARC May Meeting Minutes

201 3 Officers President: .............. WD9EZB

Benjamin Straw, KC9UNS

Meeting called to order at 7:35 PM

Bob Wiberg

Attendance:

1 5 Members 1 Guest, 1 New Member.

Vice President: ....... KB9HO

Reading of Minutes:

The minutes of the previous meeting May 1 0, 201 3 was approved as read.

Russ McComb

Treasure Report:

Secretary: ............. KC9UNS

Committee reports

Treasurer: ................ KF9EX Jim Harney Trustee: ..................... WV9O

• Treasurer Report read by Jim KF9EX. • Jim advised the attendees he had ID cards for those who have paid dues and asked if they see that person please let them know or take that person his or her card.

Benjamin Straw

• Repeater:: Mark K9MQ enabling the kerchunk filter, he has also been editing Marv Boetcher the hang time delay so people won't have a problem with the filter as its disabled during this hang time. After listening to 7000 he found most operators Directors let the repeater drop before rekeying, this is the WRONG way to operate and is hard on repeater equipment. The proper way is to rekey 2 seconds after you Bill Young ................. N9QLS hear the COURTESY BEEP to allow people to enter in a conversation. Don't Ken Brown ................ KE9TC worry the TOT restarts after the beep.

Bob Nelms ............ WD9FNY • Red Cross: Still having problems contacting Gordon • RACES: Jim reported the Health Dept. moved in next door and as soon as the Mark Skowronski .......... K9MQ E91 1 center is built we will be moved to the new building, whether or not this is John Gianotti ................. W9WY FACT is to be determined, when this is supposed to happen, Jim does not know. All antennas will be moved, except repeaters.

Editorial Staff If you call the EMA office you will get a new clerk named Malissa • Contests: Ben KC9UNS let the attendees know the club cancelled Field day.

Editor-in-Chief ...... KC9UNS He also advised that the club will be renting the same shelter as last year for Benjamin Straw INPOTA. It’s a BYOF event, the club will be providing Coil and water. Hours of (kc9uns@gmail.com) operation is 1 0am for setup, 1 1 am - 5pm.for operating; cookout Noon - 1 .

• VE and Hamfest Ben KC9UNS advised that the next VE in our area is in July, if Club Resources one want to travel, 2 will be going on during field day. also testing at the 6 Meter Club of Chicago Hamfest, Sunday June 1 6th.

W9LJ/R ......................... 1 47.000 + PL 1 31 .8 • Net: Ben KC9UNS is seeing a low numbers with the net due to summer W9LJ/R (St. John) ..... 1 47.240 + PL 1 31 .8

Old Business:

• Jim Advised Bartronics inspected and passed the clubs tower and sent us pictures of everything including a nice view. Cost was 300.00 for the inspection.

• Bob Wd9EZB thanks those who attended the club fundraiser at Five Guys Burgers • Dave AA9XS reminded the attendees about the Brickyard run July 4th in Hobart, IN. They will be needing help for this event. Please contact Dave via email for more info fchary@catholic.org

New Business: None

50/50:

Carter KC9YGU Won $1 2

Program:

Ed K9TZT, Electrofied us on electrical safety and 3 ways to die from it.

Meeting adjourned at 8:50 PM local.

W9LJ/R ......................... 442.075 + PL 1 31 .8 Repeater Nets Thursday Night @ 8 pm: LCARC Weekly Infomation Net

Meetings

July 1 2, 201 3 BOARD MEETING LCEMA OFFICE, 2900 93rd Ave Crown Point (41 .449555,-87.36893) (Across from Gov. Ctr.) 6:30 p.m.

July 1 2, 201 3 CLUB MEETING 2900 93rd Ave Crown Point (41 .449555,-87.36893) (Across from Gov. Ctr.) 7:30 p.m.

LCARC is an IRS-certified 501(c)3 charitable organization and donations are deductible pursuant to the IRS rules. If you have working radio equipment and ancillary equipment that you can and wish to donate to the club, please contact one of the board members and we will be happy to talk to you about the process. Many companies will either grant or match employee’s gifts to nonprofit organizations like LCARC.Please determine if your com pany is among these and contact a board member so we may help fund and grow LCARC. We cannot accept certain donations, and have to place some restrictions around them (no hazardous materials, nothing we could not sell, etc.). If you are interested, look me, or any other board member up at one of the meetings, or contact us via email (our addresses at the end of this newsletter)

Vol. 61 No. 7

Short Skip

2

F R O M TH E M EETI N G

. _.. _. _. . _ . _. _. _. ... ....

_ _ _ . _. _

... _. _ .. . _ _.

Meet the newest LCARC Member

Dan "I'm To Sexy" K9SGA

Presentations and demonstrations at LCARC are a fun part of our meetings. Come join us! Not a LCARC member?

It doesn't matter you’re welcome to attend our meetings.

No strings, no pressure!

Vol. 61 No. 7

Short Skip

3

Size of pile-up not necessarily related to entity’s rarity John Harper AE5X

I’ve been somewhat aware of a characteristic regarding DXpeditions and have recently began to pay more attention to it.

The gist of this post is this: That a DXpedition’s popularity – that is, the size of the pile-ups and general mayhem that it generates – is not necessarily due to the rarity of the entity but to the flashiness of its publicity and the build-up of its commencement.

Prior to going on the air, the Clipperton Island team had built a website and made frequent announcements of their progress through mailing lists and DX-related websites.

When they went on the air in March, the pile-ups were justifiably huge on all bands.

Same thing for ZL9, PY0 and 1 A0.

pile-ups for them range from non-existent to small.

And that’s not a Bad Thing – it’s excellent news to both experienced and beginning DXers.

Rare entities I’ve recently worked with little to no pile-ups: • Botswana • Armenia • Bangladesh • Cocos (Keeling) Island • Christmas Island Any of those entities would generate large pile-ups if a large-scale DXpedition were taking place from them. But instead, they have been small one-or two-man operations that were easy to work due to good signals and low-key pile-ups.

A prime example of both categories is Bangladesh: No surprises – they are all rare entities and they all had correspondingly large pile-ups…and the websites/publicity S21 XV recently provided a New One for many DXers yet to go with them. the pile-ups were not what they will be in November when a 20-man team will be putting S2 on the air.

But other rare entities have aired in the meantime that are Visit John's Blog AE5X.com/blog smaller, low-key operations – and despite their rarity, the

“AGAIN-AGAIN?” Ohio Ham accidebtly sets Guiness World Record Ham Hijinks Dot Com

DONCHESTERVILLE, Ohio; June 7, 201 3 – A Buckeye state ham radio operator has earned world-wide recognition…and did it accidentally.

(another U.S. ham located in Reno, Nevada).

Calvin Smithpeters is very proud of his record-setting achievement.

Calvin Smithpeters, a Generalclass licensee, has been an amateur radio operator for 25 years. He says he received a phone call a few days ago notifying him that he'd earned a spot in the upcoming 201 4 version of the famous Guinness Book of World Records.

The representative told Smithpeters he had set a new record for "Asking An Amateur Radio Operator to Repeat Information in an On-Going QSO."

"It truly is an outstanding feat, even if the category is fairly obscure," says Oliver Newcastle-Ipswitch, Guiness’ Director of Notifications. "Mr. Smithpeters asked for a signal report 1 7 times. He asked for Evers to repeat his name Calvin Smithpeters is very proud of his Mr. 28 times. And he requested record-setting achievement. the QTH be repeated over 3 dozen times. Truly remarkable "I was working some 40 meter SSB," says Smithpeters. in a 1 5 minute conversation!"

"The phone rang downstairs and Mildred didn't believe who it was at first. She kept the representative on the line While proud to be included in the world-renown until I could get there." publication, Smithpeters says next time he’ll wait until his wife is finished using the food blender before he starts a According to the London, England-based record keeping QSO. organization, Smithpeters requested information be retransmitted repeatedly during a QSO with Paul Evers ### www.hamhijinks.com

LoTW Update

A new version of Trusted QSL (TQSL) software for Logbook of The World (LoTW) is available to users. TQSL v.

1 .1 4.1 may be downloaded from the LoTW page. The new software lets users upload log files to LoTW directly from Trusted QSL, saving steps. TQSL v 1 .1 4.1 also will automatically check for updates, prompting users to download and install. Among other new features, any QSOs that have been successfully uploaded to LoTW or saved to a file are registered in a database, and exact duplicates are automatically stripped from future logs (this feature may be disabled). TQSL also will ensure that the CQ and ITU zones and any subdivisions (US state/county, Canadian province, Russian oblast) are valid with respect to each other. This should reduce the incidence of swapped CQ/ITU zones and generally help to ensure more accurate location data is uploaded. Full information on the advantages of upgrading are available on the LoTW website. http://www.arrl.org/logbook-of-the-world

Vol. 61 No. 7

Short Skip

4

Phishing Scam on ARRL.net E-mail Addresses

It has been reported by several members that someone posing as “Arrl.net Online Services” is attempting to convince members to provide personal information. These e-mails ask the user for his or her username and password. Please be advised that these e-mails are not from the ARRL. We would never ask you for this information in this fashion. The best course of action is to ignore such requests and, as a general precaution, never send personal information via e-mail.

Padraig Lysandrou, KC9UUS, is Amateur Radio Newsline’s 201 3 Young Ham of the Year

A 1 6-year-old QST Cover Plaque Award winner from Bloomington, Indiana, is this year’s Amateur Radio Newsline “Young Ham of the Year.” Readers gave the thumbs up to Padraig Lysandrou, KC9UUS, for his article “ A Crazy Idea: DXpedition to Cyprus, ” which appeared in the May 201 3 issue of QST. “I’m not sure what to think. I’m happy,” Lysandrou allowed, after hearing he’d been selected for the annual honor. As a young stamp collector, he got interested in ham radio through his mother, Carolyn, KC9URR, a serious shortwave listener. She would show him letters she’d received back from stations she’d heard. “I saw those, and…I got into shortwave. And, then the interest grew bigger, and it wasn’t just about stamps anymore. And so I got interested in ham radio.”

Lysandrou is among the protégés of Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, a Bloomington High School South chemistry teacher who, at age 5, once was the youngest ham in the US. Rapp invited the young man to join the school’s Amateur Radio club and introduced him to the hobby. Rapp and Dr Scott Wright, KØMD, nominated Lysandrou as Young Ham of the Year.

Soon Lysandrou had an Amateur Extra ticket and became president of his school’s Amateur Radio club. Participation in the ARRL School Club Roundup and a program on the Peter Island 3YØX DXpedition really sparked his interest in DX and led to his smaller DXpedition to Cyprus, where he has family, and his article in QST. Equipped with a Yaesu FT-897 and a Buddipole antenna, he operated from various locations, trying to “talk as much as possible and meet new people,” seeking quality over quantity. As word of his DXpedition spread, Lysandrou found himself invited to be a presenter at the Dayton Hamvention® Youth Forum in May. “To meet other 1 6 year olds who are Extras and who read my article and are really excited to meet me is also really cool,” Lysandrou said. “I’m sort of a role model, and I would like to continue to be one.”

Indiana Section Manager Lou Everett, WA5LOU, picked Lysandrou as an assistant section manager for youth. His other interests include 4-H, electronics, music and robotics, and he even performed in Carnegie Hall last year, as part of the Hoosier Youth Philharmonic (he plays the cello).

“I’ve been designing circuits and messing around with a bunch of high-voltage circuits and transformer drivers and all sorts of stuff that fuel my interest between Amateur Radio, electronics and chemistry,” Lysandrou says. He will receive the Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award August 1 7 at the Huntsville (Alabama) Hamfest. The Young Ham of the Year Award was created by Amateur Radio Newsline with corporate sponsorship from Yaesu, CQ and Heil Sound. — Amateur Radio Newsline Vol. 61 No. 7

Short Skip

5

Unsolicited rare QSL: VK9XM John Harper, AE5X

Every now and then an envelope from the bureau contains a pearl – an unexpected card from a rare entity for a contact that I hadn’t gotten around to QSLing yet. An LoTW confirmation usually is enough to prevent me from sending a paper QSL. Such was the case with VK9XM for a contact I’ll remember for a very long time. I had just finished installation of my first-ever tower and Yagi and was tuning around on 1 2 meters one evening. Very few signals were on the band but I wanted to check the ability of the Yagi on 1 2m and was looking for someone – anyone – to have a QSO with.

I heard a very faint CQ from what I initially thought was an Australian station. A few W6\s answered him but he called CQ again. This time I copied his call correctly and the Yagi proved its worth.

Take a look at the card – the fish is made from wrenches, a pulley and other tools: Visit John's Website and blog at AE5X.com

. _.. _. _. . _ . _. _. _. ... ....

_ _ _ . _. _

... _. _ .. . _ _.

Art Bell Declines Jeff Davis KE9V

Art Bell, W6OBB teased his old audience earlier this year by floating the notion of a possible return to the broadcast airwaves.

Last month, not long before Dayton, he apparently though better of it and released the following via his Facebook page:

“I guess it is time to end any further speculation that I will return to the air anytime soon. I have given (2) very solid offers a lot of thought and have turned them down. My reasons are many, though I am profoundly sad at the current state of the show, both offers would have been direct competition with Coast and anger is the wrong reason to proceed. Also I really do not want to destroy what I built despite it’s current state. Asia will be in first grade in the Fall and getting up very early, I would be up late and sleeping late, I would not see much of her or Airyn. Life is short and I want to spend what I have left with my Family. I hope my friends understand…”

But then, just a few days ago, his long dead Web domain, artbell.com popped back online with a curious exclamation point anchoring the page.

Perhaps he’s trying to send us a secret message?

As usual, stay tuned.

Visit Jeff on the web KE9V.net

. _.. _. _. . _ . _. _. _. ... ....

_ _ _ . _. _

... _. _ .. . _ _.

STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE CURRENT HAPPENINGS OF THE LAKE COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB ON FACEBOOK. TO FIND US TYPE LCARC IN THE FACEBOOK SEARCH BOX OR HTTP://WWW. FACEBOOK. COM/LCARC

. _.. _. _. . _ . _. _. _. ... ....

Vol. 61 No. 7

_ _ _ . _. _

Short Skip

... _. _ .. . _ _.

6

QCWA Chapter 36 Meeting Information Stan Vandiver, W4SV

Details of our upcoming meetings, and highlights of past meetings, can always be found at http://www.chapter36.org/meetings.html.

It is not necessary to be a QCWA member to attend breakfast and dinner meetings. All are welcome. Use this link to check on future dates: (http://www.chapter36.org/meetings.html).

73, Stan W4SV This is probably the shortest meeting recap I have written so far.

We all had a great time at our May meeting, a specially priced afternoon buffet at the Blue Chip Casino where many like to indulge in some of the extracurricular activities that they offer. There were 1 4 members and guests attending, and rumor has it that there were a few lucky winners in our party. Sadly, I was not one of them!

We didn't take any photos at this meeting, but that helped to minimize the distinction between the winners and the sore losers. (Only kidding!)

Membership Drive Contest Update: Dennis, K9JZZ, is still our current leader with one new member signed up... himself! But a score of one should be easy to beat, so come on out and play, and get some new members signed up with QCWA! The latest contest updates will always be kept current on the Contest Page. Remember: 1 st Prize is now $50 CASH!

HamQTH celebrates two years anniversary!

Petr, OK2CQR

HamQTH.com celebrates two years anniversary with good health and growing number of users.

What was the most important news last year? We moved to new and much faster server with 28GB of RAM, 4x1 TB disk connected to RAID 1 0. Forum has been added, now is not visited so often but hopefully, it will get better in the future. UI was improved as well. Lots of changes were made to developers interface. Application developers can use DX cluster feed, dxcc callsign search, upload QSO in real time etc.

Also the list of apps with HamQTH support is growing. We have apps for MacOS, iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows, Linux and several web sites are using it as well.

Recent news: • • •

Simple award verification protocol added (more in developers section) Feedback button added A few small bug fixed

HamQTH.com statistics: • • • • •

527,346 visitors 4,080,887 page views 1 5,965 registered users 1 1 ,1 37,898 QSO in the log from 1 ,650 different callsigns 1 3,240,055 queries to XML search

It won't be possible without your support. Please upload your images to HamQTH , tell your friends about it and use it every day. If you like HamQTH.com, please consider small donation and/or put our banner to your home page.

Keep your profile up-to-date, please!

73, Petr, OK2CQR HamQTH.com owner Vol. 61 No. 7

Short Skip

7

FCC Considers Encryption on Amateur Bands Bob Witte K0NR

ust when things were terminally boring on the amateur radio regulatory front, the ARRL reports that “The FCC is inviting public comments on a proposal from a Massachusetts ham to amend the Part 97 Amateur Service rules to permit the encryption of certain amateur communications during emergency operations or related training exercises.” The FCC is seeking comments on the Petition for Rulemaking RM-1 1 699, submitted by Don Rolph (AB1 PH). My email and twitter feed started filling up with passionate pleas to either support this petition or to kill it.

This idea has been around for a while but I don’t recall the FCC considering action on it. The issue is that “messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning” are prohibited by Part 97 rules for the Amateur Radio Service. (Actually, that is not completely true since an exception exists for control of stations in space and radio-controlled models.) This rule has a very important role in enabling the “self policing nature” of the amateur radio service. That is, everyone can listen to the content of all radio communications, allowing improper use of the spectrum to be exposed. (Note to self: file a petition to require encryption when using 1 4.31 3 MHz.) This rule can be a barrier when ham radio Emcomm organizations are providing communications for served agencies (e.g., the Red Cross, fire departments, medical response, law enforcement, etc.) These served agencies do not want sensitive information passed over the radio “in the clear.”

Sensitive information includes items such as medical/patient information, location of emergency responders and supplies, damage assessments, door or gate access codes, etc.

A few weeks ago, I volunteered my time to help with communications for the Black Forest wildfire here in Colorado. So count me as someone that sees emergency communications as a key part of amateur radio. (Gosh, I think Part 97 even mentions this. See Part 97.1 a) I also see that the prohibition against encryption is a does get in the way during some incidents.

But I am also worried about opening the door to significant use of encryption on the ham bands.

The problem with encrypted messages is that…wait for it…you can’t decode the messages. So how do we maintain that self-policing thing? The fear seems to be that if we open the door at all to encryption, it will enable virtually anyone (amateur license or not) to transmit encrypted messages for unknown and inappropriate purposes.

The challenge is to figure out what limits could be put on encrypted operation to retain the selfpolicing nature of ham radio while enabling more effective emergency communications. Here are some ideas: • • • • • •

Limit the use of encryption to actual emergencies and training exercises. (This is already in RM-1 1 699.)

Require that radio transmissions are properly identified “in the clear”, with no encryption.

That way if encryption is used on a regular basis, steps can be taken to investigate further.

(This may already be assumed by RM-1 1 699 but I did not see an explicit statement.)

Require additional information to be sent in the clear with the station ID when sending encrypted messages. For example, the name of the served agency, the nature of the emergency or drill, or anything else that would help a random listener to judge whether it is an appropriate use of encryption.

Require archiving of encrypted messages (in unencrypted form) for some period time, available for FCC inspection.

[Added 28 June]: Avoid international regulation issues by limiting encrypted messages to US stations only. <insert your idea here>

Still pondering this issue…what do you think?

73, Bob K0NR.com Vol. 61 No. 7

Short Skip

8

INPOTA Operating Event and Picnic Saturday September 7th 10am - 5pm Indiana Dunes State Park Tremont Shelter

Bring Good Food and Good Company More info email: KC9UNS@Gmail.com

Vol. 61 No. 7

Short Skip

9

Visit the Lake County ARC on the web at http://www.w9lj.org